A few years back, a CHL holder answered an ad on Craigslist Dallas from an individual wanting to sell a late-model car at a very attractive price, if the buyer could pay cash. The seller was in Austin, and the CHL holder was in Dallas, so they agreed to meet at a rest stop near Hillsboro to make the transaction.
They met at the rest stop, and when the CHL holder produced the cash, the “seller” drew a gun. The CHL holder went for his gun, and was shot dead in the process.
The head of the CHL section at the Texas DPS did a lot of research on reaction times, and he found that the typical recruit at the DPS academy takes about two-tenths of a second just to recognize a simple threat (such as the display of a weapon), and then roughly a second to actually react to it. The FBI teaches its recruits that if a potential assailant with a knife is less than 7 yards away, you don’t have enough time to draw and deliver a round on target before getting stabbed, so you have to deal with that threat in some other way. The problem is that it takes from one to two seconds to react effectively to a serious threat (or longer if you are an old fart like me), during which time an assailant can kill you.
What could the murder victim at the Hillsboro rest stop have done differently? Well, for starters, appearing in a remote location alone with a wad of cash to buy a large-ticket item like a car from a complete stranger is pretty stupid. That falls under what I would categorize as “Terminal Dumbass.” Offering to meet inside a branch of his bank in Hillsboro to do the transaction and get transfer papers notarized at the same time would have been more logical, and the murderer’s reaction to that surely would have raised some pretty obvious red flags.
But what about the case where you have got a gun pointed at you already (not counting any less-than-brilliant decisions that got you into that situation)? One thing the victim could have done: Throw the money into the air, and move in the opposite direction while drawing from concealment. As I have demonstrated in class, even a few one-Dollar bills floating in the air has a magical effect on the criminal’s concentration. It’s called mis-direction, and it’s the most important skill in a professional magician’s toolkit. The best place to be when the bullet arrives is… somewhere else. And the misdirection can give you time to save your life.
As I mentioned in the Dry-Firing posts, you should spend some time drawing from concealment while jumping to one side, or running crouched, or rolling on the carpet. But in a later post in this series, I will cover “Listen to Your Fear,” which may be much more important.
There is a saying in aviation that the superior pilot conscientiously avoids situations that might call for his superior piloting skills. That should be the practice of the skilled CHL holder, too. Conscientiously avoid situations that might call for your superior marksmanship. Because it is not possible to out-draw an already-drawn gun.
